


Spanglish

by Lyraspace



Category: Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends
Genre: Apologies, Gen, Language Barrier, Learning To Understand Others, Racism, Speciesism, Xenophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:15:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25981195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyraspace/pseuds/Lyraspace
Summary: Language barriers between friends can be tough, especially for Bloo and Eduardo. Can a fateful day at the park be their key to finding common ground?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Spanglish

There were times where Bloo just couldn't understand Eduardo, no matter how hard he genuinely tried.

If it wasn't a joke that translated poorly, ruining the punchline, it was the way Eduardo oftentimes used his native language to butt people out of a conversation he didn't want others listening in on. (Especially him, no fair!) And if it wasn't the millions of rules Spanish required for you to speak it properly, (What do you mean there's four words for car in Spanish?!) it was the way Eduardo belted out Selena Quintanilla lyrics in the shower EVERY morning. (And the only reason Bloo even knew who that lady was, was because Eduardo wouldn't shut up about her!)

In other words, Eduardo was better off using as little Spanish around him as possible.

The problem with that was, either Eduardo didn't get the memo, or he was too stupid to understand it.

It all started one Friday morning, and Imaginary Friends of all shapes and sized were locked in a heated completion of wit; Madame Foster's Friday Morning Breakfast Trivia.

Bloo was on a rather impressive winning streak, in spite of having Eduardo for his team partner (and only because everyone else had already formed their teams), and by the end of breakfast he was so close to victory he could taste it.

But on the last question, the very last question, Eduardo ruined everything.

The big lummox took it upon himself to shout some attempt at an answer in Spanish, and apparently that didn't count, giving some other team the opportunity to answer the question and win the competition.

And like that, victory slipped from Bloo's stubby little hands, leaving him with nothing but the very bitter taste of defeat.

As everyone leaves the dining room to do other things, Bloo stews in his fury and disbelief. Eduardo tries to touch his shoulder as a form of comfort, but he swats it away.

"Nice going, Eduardo!" Bloo shouts, "We were so close, and you just had to blow it! I've had it with you and all your Spanish! Why can't you ever speak some proper English for a change?"

"Lo siento, Azul," he says, shrinking in fear in spite of his larger size, "I know you really wanted to win."

Beyond frustrated, Bloo pinches the space between his eyes and turns away from him.

"Go. Just...just go, Ed."

Eduardo's face falls and tears well up in his eyes, but rather than starting to cry, he simply walks away.

Bloo sighs and turns to leave in the opposite direction, but he's stopped by an enormous Converse sneaker. He looks up to find both Frankie and Wilt looking down at him disapprovingly. 

"Bloo, what on Earth was that back there?" Frankie asks, appalled.

"I'm sorry, but I have to agree," Wilt accuses pointedly, "that really wasn't cool."

"What did I do?" the blue blob whines, crossing his arms, "it's not MY fault we lost."

"You think we care about some stupid game of trivia?" Frankie says, "you really hurt Eduardo's feelings, Bloo."

"I don't get it, is all," Bloo argues, "with as long as he's been living here, he should be a lot better at English."

"I remember when Eduardo first moved in," Wilt recalls, defensively, "If you think he's not good at English now, he didn't know a lick of English back then."

"It was really hard to get him to come out of his shell with such a huge language barrier to boot," Frankie says, "Trust us when we say that the English he does speak now is a massive improvement. You should give Eduardo a lot of credit for that; learning a second language is a lot harder than you think."

"Alright, I guess I'll apologize," Bloo scoffs, waving an arm dismissively, "But don't catch me learning any Spanish anytime soon."

Seeing that there was no way to convince the blue blob to change his mindset, Wilt and Frankie shake their heads and go their separate ways. Bloo very quickly forgets about the conversation, as there was another, much more important thing to get ready for: a house-wide picnic at the park.

Everyone somehow manages to squeeze themselves on the bus, and soon they take off to pick up Mac from school, whom luckily enough had a half-day, so he could join in too. (And sleep over for the weekend! Bloo was so excited!)

They stop at the front of the school right as the bell rings. The doors open as a flurry of children run in multitudes of directions. Bloo opens his window near the front of the bus, leaning out to look for Mac in the crowd.

He puts a hand to his mouth and sends out a whistle that flies across the courtyard. A mop of familiar brown hair turns to face him, and he waves as Mac dashes towards the bus.

The boy and his creation crash into each other as the bus doors open and Mac flies through. They laugh and joke as the bus pulls away from the sidewalk and finally begins its journey to the park. 

Mac turns in his seat to say hello to his other friends, and notices Eduardo staring out the window solemnly.

"Hey Bloo," he asks, "what's wrong with Eduardo?"

The blue blob turns in the same direction and rolls his eyes. "Don't worry about it, Mac," he says, "He's just being a big baby because I yelled at him a little."

The boy's head snaps around to face him, "Why the heck would you do that, Bloo?"

"I was THIS close," Bloo hisses, pinching two fingers agonizingly close to each other without touching, "to finally winning Madame Foster's Friday Morning Breakfast Trivia, and Eduardo just HAD to shout the final answer in Spanish. We lost, no thanks to him."

"Is that really worth being mad at him though?" Mac questions.

"YES!" Bloo exclaims, grabbing his creator by the front of his shirt, "When the winning prize is first dibs on Madame Foster's monthly batch of chocolate chip muffins!"

"That's no excuse." Mac frowns, "I want you to apologize to him."

"Mac, not you too!" Bloo whines, sagging in his seat.

"Yes, me too," Mac says, crossing his arms.

"You're like the third person to get on my case about it today," Bloo says, "What's so great about Spanish, anyway?"

"That a LOT of people speak it," Mac responds, "In fact, it's the second most spoken language in the United States. Who knows? In the future, there might be more Spanish speakers in the U.S. than English."

"Great, just what I need," Bloo groans, "MORE Spanish."

"If you took at least some time out of your day to acknowledge that the world doesn't revolve around you," Mac says,"You'll realize that Spanish isn't as bad as you think it is. You could even learn a thing or two from it."

An idea seems to pop into the boy's head.

"That reminds me!" Mac takes off his backpack to open it and dig through it's contents. He takes out a sheet of paper with lots of writing on it, the most prolific mark on it being a bright red A+. He leans over the edge of his seat to wave the paper in front of Eduardo.

"Hey Eduardo, I aced that Spanish test!" Mac says," Thanks SO much for helping me study; I would've flunked hard if it weren't for you."

Hearing that seems to cheer Eduardo up, because he starts grinning from ear to ear.

"Maravilloso!" Eduardo smiles, "I knew you could do it!"

"What'd I tell you, Mac?" Frankie calls to him from the driver's seat, "Eduardo is THE go-to guy for help in Spanish. I swear, I probably would have had to repeat the 11th grade if it weren't for him."

Seeing Eduardo smiling again is enough for Mac to sit back down in his seat.

"I still want you to apologize," Mac whispers to Bloo, stuffing his test back into his backpack, "sometime TODAY, please."

"Fine! I'm gonna!" Bloo whines, "Just quit nagging me about it."

Soon enough, the bus reaches its destination. All sorts of Imaginary Friends run off into their favored friend groups and enjoy all sorts of lawn games and delicious food. Bloo decides to spend most of that time with Mac, catching frogs and turtles by the edge of the pond and starting a massive water balloon fight, to Mr. Herriman's chagrin. Almost instantly, the morning's troubles seemed to just disappear from his mind.

The hours seem to fly by, and pretty soon it was almost time to pack up and go home.

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

The blue blob hesitates from stuffing an entire slice of pie into his mouth. 

"Am I? What?" he asks.

"I thought you were going to apologize to Eduardo." says Mac, drinking from a can of soda (sugar free, of course), "You can do it right now. He's right over there, see?"

Bloo turns around to find Eduardo picking flowers a ways across the field underneath a large tree, without a care in the world.

"Why do I still have to apologize?" Bloo asks, "He probably forgot all about it by now."

"Because it's the right thing to do," Mac responds, crossing his arms, "You don't even need to make a big scene out of it. Just go over there, apologize, and be done with it. Admitting you were wrong isn't the end of the - "

Mac stops. He seems to notice something going on across the field.

"Who's that man over there with Eduardo?"

Bloo turns back around to find out what Mac meant. Sure enough, some strange man was standing underneath the tree with Eduardo. The conversation seemed to be going fine at first, but it suddenly takes a turn.

The man takes an aggressive stance, and soon enough, he's practically yelling so loud that everyone around them could hear it. While Bloo was too far away to decipher what was being said, it was quite clear that it wasn't anything nice.

Eduardo's reaction is immediate. He recoils in fear and clings to the tree like his life depended on it, digging into the trunk so hard bits of bark were chipping off. The man somehow takes this as an opportunity to step even closer to the Imaginary Friend and shout at him some more. 

By this point Eduardo's crying, completely terrified of the man attacking him. Even though he was more than strong enough to beat the guy into next week, it was never in his nature.

So instead, he cries loud enough for everyone to hear:

"¡Déjame en paz!" 

Oh no. This was bad.

Eduardo's English was clumsy at best on a good day, but everyone at Foster's knew that all comprehension of the English language just seemed to fly out the window whenever he was extremely upset. Nobody could really figure out why, but it was as if his brain simply refused to process any English whatsoever whenever he was like this.

Seeing it on full display was an awful sight. And it only seemed to make the man verbally assaulting him even angrier.

Bloo had seen enough.

Before he even knows what he's doing, and before anyone at the picnic table can stop him, he jumps from his seat and sprints across the field, without even realizing he still had the pie in his hand.

Getting closer to the confrontation, Bloo is able to hear some of what the man was yelling at Eduardo.

"I've had it with these illegal aliens; crossing the border, stealing our jobs." the man shouts, "And then their little anchor babies create Imaginary freaks like you than can't speak any English! This country's gone to the pits because of people like you!" 

Bloo reaches the tree and steps in between the man and Eduardo, preventing the stranger from getting any closer.

"Hey pal!" Bloo shouts, pointing up at the man's chest, "What part of 'leave him alone' can't you understand?"

The man looks down at him dismissively. "You're his friend?" He asks, "I doubt it if he can't speak any English."

"Yes I am," the blue blob replies, defensively, "And while he isn't the best at English, he definitely tries his best! Meanwhile the only thing you seem to be fluent in is Bigoted and Stupid!"

The man's face scrunches up into a grimace.

"Great, look at what YOU'VE caused," the man says to Eduardo, who hides behind the tree even further,"if you just spoke some English like I asked, we wouldn't of had to drag other people into this!"

"You want some English?" Bloo asks, "Here's some English for ya: BACK OFF!"

Bloo kicks the man's shin as hard as he can. The man drops to one knee in pain, holding his already bruising shin with one hand, reaching for the blue blob with the other.

"Why you little - "

Bloo throws his pie right into the man's face, the force causing him to fall over onto his side, dazed, confused and out for the count. 

Breathing heavily due to the adrenaline, Bloo stands over the man for a moment or two. Remembering who he was here for, he turns around to face Eduardo.

The larger Imaginary Friend is shaking in his boots, but at least he's let go of the tree. They stare at each other for a moment, the both of them still shell-shocked from the situation that just happened.

Bloo is the first to snap out of it. He crosses the distance between them and grabs Eduardo by the wrist, tugging him along gently. Eduardo doesn't resist, but remains silent as they walk away.

"C'mon, Ed. Let's get out of here." 

The bus ride home is eerily silent. Nobody says a word to each other even as they arrive home, eat dinner, and get ready for bed.

Bloo feels a pit in his stomach as he brushes his teeth that night. Ever since it happened, the events of that afternoon were repeating itself in his mind, and it only made him feel worse. Bloo really didn't get why; he had done a good thing, so why did he still feel bad about it?

_Why can't you ever speak some proper English for a change?_

Oh yeah. That.

"I really screwed up today, didn't I?"

Mac takes his toothbrush out of his mouth and looks at him questioningly. 

"I don't think Mr. Herriman is mad at you for what happened at the picnic." he says,"Everyone saw what happened." 

"That's not what I'm talking about," Bloo sighs,"This morning, I was really close to sounding a lot like that jerk at the park, and I guess I realize now why you guys were upset with me."

He looks down into the drain of the sink.

"How on earth can I make it up to Ed?"

"Giving that racist a taste of his own medicine and getting Eduardo out of there was a pretty good start," Mac replies, "But I think we both know how you can fix this."

Mac jumps down from the sink and walks out of the bathroom.

"See you in the morning."

Bloo stares at himself in the mirror for a long time, realizing what Mac was saying. He hated it when Mac was right.

Walking into his room he finds that everyone else looked like they were already in bed. Bloo sighed; maybe he had waited too long to apologize. He climbs into bed and looks up at the bent mattress that Eduardo was laying on. So many thoughts were buzzing in his mind he feels like he was never going to get any sleep unless he tries saying something. Better now than never, right?

"Hey, Eduardo?" Bloo whispers, "You still awake?"

It's silent for a long moment, and Bloo begins to think that Eduardo was already asleep, but then the mattress creaks as the weight on it shifts a little.

"Si." Eduardo says.

"Look, about this morning..." Bloo starts, but falters, trying to figure out his words.

"I...I'm..."

He sighs, frustrated. Just spit it out already!

"Lo siento."

Bloo is taken aback by his own words. Did he just apologize in Spanish? That probably meant a lot more coming from him, considering everything that's happened today.

The room once more falls into silence. Bloo starts to wonder if the words he's said were too little, too late.

Suddenly, a large shape reaches down into Bloo's bed and grabs hold of him, yanking him up...

...into a great big hug!

Bloo feels like he's being squeezed so hard that his soul is leaving his body.

"Too tight, Ed, too tight!" the blue blob chokes, frantically tapping the larger Friend's arm. Thankfully, Eduardo loosens up and Bloo gasps a large breath of air.

"Aw jeez, Eduardo," he groans, "Enough with the waterworks, you're gonna get me all wet."

"I wanted to say gracias," Eduardo sniffs, "Thank you for getting that mean man to go away."

"I had to make it up to you somehow," Bloo says, "You probably have to deal with enough jerks like that just for speaking Spanish. The last thing you need is crap like that from your own friends. Those muffins weren't worth being mad at you like that. They go stale after like one day anyways."

"You es a bueno amigo," Eduardo laughs, "When you es not a big meanie that es."

"What can I say?" Bloo smirks, "I'm the jerk of this friend group, nobody else! So if someone bothers you like that again, tell me, alright? I'll kick 'em into next week!"

Eduardo squeezes him again a little to tight for comfort, but Bloo decided not to complain. Eduardo had been though enough for one day; it wouldn't hurt to at least let him have this.

Bloo came to realize that while he might never fully understand Eduardo at times, he knew now that sometimes, friendship didn't need a language.

Perhaps, that's what made theirs so great.

THE END


End file.
